Best Week Ever

             Literally this was one of the greatest weeks of my mission!  Caminabamos con prisa y con una sonrisa (we walked with haste and a smile)... as President told us to do. We had 9 LESSONS with members this week! So great!  Had a great huge asado and music night with the ward on Saturday and TONS of people came INCLUDING Raquel AND HER MOM!!! So exciting!!! :)   I love this ward SOOOOOO much and never want to leave. Hna Tomco and I really just had the most memborable and incredible week together.  We are both on the edges of our seats because changes are this week.  I am supposing nothing will happen because we are helping with changes again and training and what not but who knows.  We both keep praying and then saying but we pray that we will be willing to accept thy will.  ¨A donde me mande iré Señor. ¨ But seriously I don´t think anyone has ever taught me as much as Hermana Tomco has.  She is a gem.  She really has taught me two of the greatest lesson I believe... that is humility and letting others serve you.

Plus this change is going to be THE GREATEST CHANGE OF OUR LIVES!!!   All to look forward to...

-Going to the temple

-5 baptisms

-Easter

-General Conference

-A General Authority comes to visit and is planning a huge fireside for Investigators and Menos Activos with President

-We complete a year!  what?

That's it, in a nutshell of my crazy exciting life! We have a fun noche de hogar (night of fun) planned tonight with Sandra, her kids, and Flia Troche!  So excited!   Studied faith this morning and I love what Pte. Howard W. Hunter said... ¨If everything could be proven by positive evidence there would be no need for faith.  If the element of faith is taken out of the Gospel, the plan is destroyed. Faith becomes the bridge by which the unbeliever can cross over and become a believer.¨  (that is from the little book you sent me mom).   Each test of faith we have in life is like running a race but not knowning how long it is. We just have to keep going knowing that in the end- be it heaven, today, in a year, or in a week- that the prize will come.  Put your trust in the Lord.  Love you all!

we woke up and the whole sky was red

Hermana Gamarra (who feeds us American food ;), me, Hermana Tomco and Marta

Con cariño, Hermana Owen

p.s. yes i recieved two packages.  recieved dad´s fun perc backpack all the shirts and yes ctr rings.  i still have to give out all the others but it wouldn´t hurt to have more :)  thank you for everything!

response to Nick's letter: which told of Nick not wanting mom to go back and get her phone cuz he'd be late for school...until mom said, but you can write Hillary a quick letter on the phone on the drive to school... he was then willing to go back and get the phone...

gosh i want to cry that is the most precious thing ever!!! Nick I LOVE YOU.  That made my week more than anything. xoxoxo love hilly i am SO flippin impressed you went on a black diamond!!!!WOO! DOUBLE! impressive.  love you sooooo much!  hope you had a fabulous day at school! Learn anything exciting?

response to mom's letter - who dreamt she heard Hillary's voice loud and clear, but couldn't see her, say, "mom this was the best week ever, it was so awesome..."

mom that is crazy about your dream!  BECAUSE IT SERIOUSLY WAS THE BEST WEEK EVER  not kidding you! i´ll tell you in the letter. (above is letter)

A Few Days and A Few Heros

Monday: Rainy, lots of traveling, lots of walking, 

Amazing lesson with Raquel on the Palabra de Sabiduria

Tuesday:  Realization that talking or writing in Spanish or English... there is no difference.  Hermana Tomco and I have laughed a ton about that this week.   It happened for both of us. There seems to be no difference now.  It is just second nature.  I realized today also that a lot of people will let us in here to listen, but the hardest part is letting the message in their hearts. They are willing to open their doors to us missionaries but not their hearts to their Savior who is the one really knocking.  

   Also exciting, did another division with the Hermana Minks (I love her) and she saved some Lihing Strawberry Sourbelts from her package for me!!! THE best candy in this universe! We had black honey bread for breakfast; se llama pan de miel negro. :)  

Wednesday: We have some soon to be GOLDEN investigators!   Sandra and Santiago!!!! They are a darling couple who just beem with potential. Not kidding, future bishop and young womans or relief society pte!  AMAZING family. They have 3 darling children. The best part is that the familia Troche is all pumped because they live around the corner and get along great!  Raquel was all excited about her baptism this coming Saturday the 15th, but yesterday we sat down with her and her mom and results are sad... she wants to wait a little more :(  Her mom i didn't think  it was all going to go through with the whole baptism until we started talking to her about times and then she flipped.  We had a great lesson though about the restoration with her and Raquel (Sunday- yesterday) and asnwered a ton of questions.  Raquel just called us and said we need to talk! what? I don´t know what is happening.  BUT good news hermana Tomco and I had a great number of contacts this week and lessons with members. So the Lord is blessing us a ton.  

Thursday: WE COMPLETED!!! We put goals every day but for some reason it is just harder to reach them here in the city but we are still adjusting and figuring out what goals are best to put with traveling for divisions and all.  We had a miracle:   Gladys (A reference) was home when we planned to pass by around 7 and she said that´s the only time she is ever home!  The Lord´s hand is in the work.  We set up an appointment to return so hopefully she will be new this week!  Also I treated the Hna Argile (with whom i did divisions) to the famous Mbeyu of Paraguay!  My favorite!

Friday:  We had our hero, Hermana Coronel, accompany us to a lesson with an ancient less active, Hermana Sara Culman. Seriously she is my hero.  Convert to the church, faithful mother of 9, weekly temple goer, missionary-ite!, and forced to marriage at 17 years old and still with the man today. She is one of the tallest spirit giants i know and just a hero. I know her mansion in Heaven has got to be amongst the tallest.

Saturday: Paraguay has Jasmin flowers blooming everywhere!  And Citrus fruits and ripening!  YAY!  We also found a funny old man named Mariano who wants to be baptized. He has a crazy wife who is sick in bed. The two are hoots and loved listening to us!  

Sunday!!!  Raquel and Hermana Sara Culman and Elvida Vitale (new convert!) came to church!!! A GREAT week indeed! 

xoxoxo

Con mucho Cariño,

Hermana Owen

A Paraguayan plum ! So Yummy !
You could eat a million... I did ! Not a good idea !

Hermana Owen and Tomco on the bus

A Paraguayan Arizona Fall

This is week 44

Candle lit studies (all our bulbs blew out this week... what are the odds, all three).  Drizzling rain.  Cars splashing.  Busses honking.  Motors whipping by.  I got my rain boots on... it´s a good day :)  The last few days have been rainy and it is an answer to our prayers because the heat was just excruciating.  We had a busy past week.

Tuesday consisted of capacitation with President... more interviews and training a zone.  Wednesday we did divisions in a close town on the outskirts of the city (Asunción).  There are a lot more trees and dirt roads so it was a lot colder.   It rained that day and so the night was FREEZING!  We didn´t even sleep with a fan or air conditioning!  A less active member we passed by shared some caliento caldo (hot soup) with us and homemade tortillas :) yum! We also (Hermana Johnson and I) taught a neat lesson to an investigator.  She had invited her dad to listen but he was contradicting everything we said and began raising his voice. Hermana Johnson and I stayed calm and had prayers in our hearts. I don´t remember what was said next, but the spirit was PRESENT.  The words Hermana Johnson and I began to say, and mind you I don´t remember, silenced the man and he didn´t speak for the next 20 minutes until we asked him if he would pray and ask God about these things.  He smiled and looked a little taken back.  The spirit had literally touched him.

Thursday was lunch at Familia Cañiza´s! I love them!  Like 40 family members live in this tiny tiny property with like 4 tiny tiny houses. It was a humble lunch.  She had her beautiful white crochet table cloth folded perfectly over their ironing board.  Their table is falling apart... along with a lot of things in their house, from the rainstorm.  I asked to use the bathroom before we ate.  The floors were mud, the toilet was wet, trails of ants were going in every direction up the walls, little toilet paper, and no water to top it off.  So I went back with dirty hands which I still need to get over, I still feel a little sick doing that, BUT its not unusual here in Paraguay.

Friday was a DREAM!! We went to Itagua (Ee-tah-wah) for divisions. Oh my life it is my favorite place I have now been to twice in Paraguay!   It is FILLED with palm trees and all sorts of trees, literal jungle.  Crops, fields, hills, and you can see out for miles.  

 The weather was like Arizona fall weather, just perfect.  We had a NDH out in the middle of these farm lands (pitch black and a fifteen minute walk from any road).  We watched a video from the D&C videos about how the family is ordained of God.  It is darling and GUESS WHO is in it!?!  The one and only Bro. Heap!! I think he is holding up Gavin? is my guess... to shoot a hoop haha.  

There was homemade empanadas a fun 45 min. bus ride back to the house (their area is HUGE).  I did divisions with an Hermana Braunersrither who is from Fortworth, Texas! She is darling.  

Saturday we had a beautiful COLD run, I´m gettin major ¨Arizona Fall¨ vibes here, don´t know why.  We laughed a ton as well.  

BEST NEWS!  Raquel came to church and LOVED it, especially all the testimonies!! yay!! She walked to church with a member family  (Familia Troche who i LOVE!).  We put a date with Marta (Hno Ricardo´s girlfriend) yesterday. I don´t know if I have mentioned much about Marta because she has kind of been an eternal investigator BUT she accepted a date for the 12 of APRIL!! It was neat because come to find out they were planning to get married the 5 of April. INSPIRED.

I love this work so much!!!!!  

Love you all. Xoxox

Con Cariño,

Hermana Owen

Rollin' 24/7

Elder Ballard- "when you're involved in the work of the Lord, the power behind you is always greater than the obstacles before you" that is from my dear friend and old comp the one and only Hna Wood.  

This week was literally on fire!  Gosh I felt like the spirit was rollin 24/7 between my comp and I and the work.   We have a fun new goal of reading words from Thomas S. Monson, so when people ask us, ¨Wow, if God speaks with man, what has his Prophet said most recently.¨ Like it says in 1 Peter 3:15 always be prepared to give people a reason for the hope that is within you.  

This week we went to try and visit an investigator with Hna Elena Jara.  The investigator wasn´t home.  We thumbed through our agenda deciding where to go, what to do, then we looked down the street behind us and decided to head in that direction.  As we headed down the street, we found a cute girl, long black hair, dressed in skull-decour and decided to contact her.  She was very solomn.  There was something wrong you could just tell.  We gave her a pamphlet and began to walk away but as we did I caught eyes with her. She looked as if she was on the verge of tears.  What more could give me the hint to, ¨HELLO SHARE WITH HER,¨ but in a contacting shuffling mood we left.  We had only walked a block, I stopped and said I felt we should probably go back.  Hna Tomco, so cute, not thinking a split second said, ¨Probably?  If you think let´s go! She´s right there!¨   I love her.  We returned and sat down with her.  We introduced ourselves properly this time and asked her how her day was going.  ¨good...¨ she suggested as she took a sip of her sprite and shoved her empanada in her bag.  Then as she screwed on the cap she went to tears.  ¨... Bad...¨  and she just broke down.  We wrapped our arms around her and told her that she has a father in heaven who loves her, who knows her, and a Savior whose arms are always extended out to her. We gave one of the neatest lesson of my life, on the power of the atonement and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She doesn´t live in our area but she was incredible.  She is a darling young woman,18, and has the most incredible dreams and aspirations but because of decisions and I think an unstable home life she has had to settle for less.  This gospel will change her life. You should have seen the light that was just beaming from her eyes in the end of the lesson.  

Everyday I fall more and more in love with the people of Paraguay and my mission.  Something clicked this week, like in my heart.  I don´t know.  I have noticed how things that used to be of importance no longer are.  The mission has helped me have such a change of heart.  I spoke yesterday in sacrament with Hna Tomco and I started out describing what Paraguay is to me.  It got the crowd a little teary eyed and then ME TOO!  Man, I love this country and these people SO much!  I´ll describe more next week.  We´re gettin kicked out of the cyber. It is closing!  love you all !!

xoxoxo

con mucho cariño,

Hermana Owen

the pic is han rodriguez! we traveled out 8 hrs. this week to Concepciòn!!  This is a real live Lamanite!!! She speaks Nivaclae which is a clickish language.  I love her!!! She lives in ¨Abundancia¨  it is land bought by the church and everyone there is mormon! crazy right!  she is darling.
  

BY THE WAY... did you all know that Paraguay was THE FIRST lamanite teaching mission!!! What the cool right! 

love love love you all!

Short and Sweet

This one might be a short one this week.  I can´t believe how this week flew by!!! There were tons of highlights.  Probably the best was finding RAQUEL!!! You guys HAVE to meet Raquel!  She is one of THE funniest people I have ever met in my life!! She is absolutely darling and already has a baptismal date for the 8th of MArch! Just right after your birthday Kate!  Happy Birthday! ;)    AND YOU GOT BANGS!!! AHHH I love them!!! Raquel is darling! We found her the other day and have already taught her 3 lessons and she has come to church AND has a date WHAT!  Ya I´m stoked!!! She turns 33 the 31 of March.  We are stoked to teach her.  Saw a real neat quote today... Dad will have to translate:  ¨Si usted no conoce a mi, no ha perdido nada, si no lo conoce a Dios, lo ha perdido todo.¨ - a little sign inside this resturant eating empandas de orno and lomitos arabe (an arabian type burrito with colsla inside and meat) so good!  I love you all!! Happy Late Valentines!! xoxox 

con mucho cariño,

Hermana Owen

pic: last night at the Galeano´s (who by the way no the Sparks like REALLY WELL!) This little munchkin is the CUTEST thing on earth. I have a video of her and her brother singing ¨If the SAvior Stood Beside Me¨ Her name is Kata or Kataline:)

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A little more like Him, and a little less like Me

              

         Gosh sometimes weeks are to good to even begin.  Time is just passing me by way to fast.  I´m now closer to the end of my mission than the beginning.  But that´s besides the point.  Somehow my feet keep moving, my heart keeps beating, and I can´t stop smiling.  Thursday we were sitting in a lesson with little Analia and singing ¨Llamados a Servir¨ and the missionary spirit just radiated through us all.  It was a good refresher of this great work of our Lord and why we do it.  Hna Elena Jara (recent convert as of one año, who reminds me a ton of Aunt Amy Girl) recieved her endowment yesterday.  We couldn´t go but she entered the room to join the lesson that night and she jsut brought with her a renewed spirit.    I can´t believe it was more than a year ago when I first enter the temple.  I  miss going so frequently but am excited to go here soon in the mish. 

Something that made me smile this week was the beauty of Paraguay.  Saturday morning on our run we saw red headed and yellow bellied birds.  They were darling!   Although the heat is excrutiating, it is bearable because of the wind, trees, birds, and incredible wild fruit!  I don´t think I have ever sweated so much in my entire life!  I drip like crazy.

Hermana Tomco and Hermana Owen

Hermana Owen with Analia after her Baptism.  She is so happy.

            I wanted to tell you all of a neat experience I had on a division this week in a less chuchi area.  People live in ¨asentamiento¨  which are the cheap neighborhoods the government makes... houses made of wood with nothing but wood floors.  The place is 40 minutes from Campo Grande or so. Se llama Mariano R. Alonso.  We payed a visit to an older woman who´s name is Hna Benita.  The poor thing is suffering from a bad hip bone and now just lays on a bed all day and all night.  We arrived and her grandaughter led us into her humble little home into a smaller darker room crammed with a bunk bed, a queen size bed, both matted with ruff, old, thin sheets and pillows, a dresser, and us.  There we found the tiny grandma curled up on the bed in aching pain.  Still, she invited us to sit on the bunk bed in front of her. We sat, with a thunk against our heads as we went down, reminding me of how tiny these people are sometimes.  She tossed this way and that telling us of how bad the pain is getting and my heart just ached for this precious woman.  We decided to sing her, ¨Conmigo Quedate Señor¨ or ¨Abide with Me Tis´ Eventide¨  and offer a prayer.  A sweet spirit calmed her from breathing so  heavily and she began to have a little faith in us.  We shared a small message on faith and the plan her Heavenly Father has for her and in the end she offered the prayer.  Hna Alania (my comp for the division) and I kneeled at her bedside as she folded her arms... it being the most she could do... and she began to mutter the soft words.  Pleading with her Father in Heaven for strength and health, she began to cry then weap and she could hardly finish the prayer.  The moment tugged at my heart.  I thought of the Savior when he was here on the Earth and how he went ¨straight way¨ to those who were ill in bed, couldn´t move, and he healed them.  It is amazing the love and humility the Lord has for those people.  I`m sure He thought, the moment he heard of someone like Hna Benita, what they were facing and went so quickly because he knew and would shortly literally know all the pain they were in and could more than anyone else empathise with them so equally.  Although I don´t measure near the Savior, my heart ached for her as I listened to her pleading words of faith.  One of her hands fell over the bedside, limp and weak in the end of her prayer...  I gently placed mine on top of her´s and expressed to her my love and Heavenly Father´s love for her.  We promised her these moments of pain and anguish would pass and one day she would find peace.   It  is so true... the cup WILL pass.  We face the trials of this life, but we have a Savior Jesus Christ who loves us so very much, a Redeemer from pain and grief who so willing drank from the cup, so that we... don´t have to.  

I know our SAvior lives and know he loves and knows us personally.  His arms of mercy are extended toward us always.  I love you all and wish you all a VAlentines filled with the love of our Savior.  

Con mucho Amor!

Hermana Owen

Domo Arigato

Domo arigato Mr. Robato!  We´re at Bishop´s house, dad, and he says, ¨Domo arigato!¨  WHAT!?!  My dad always says that!!  I was surprised when I asked him what it meant.  It´s not even Spanish hahaha - it´s Japanese! It means ¨thank you.¨ Our Bishop is pretty cool... no that´s definitely an understatement he is absolutely, staright up amazing.  He is so witty and is always throwing out jokes and is just quirky but makes you laugh so hard.  He is also just so patient and loves EVERYONE in the ward. 

Yesterday little Analìa Monges Ramirez was baptized!!!  Oh, it was an incredible turn out!!! About 20 members or more of the ward members came! I just can´t explain the joy that was running through me yesterday. Her story is way sad.  She grew up mostly in a Catholic Orphanage.  She is lickity smart though and just has fallen in love with the church.  What´s really neat is being able to see the young women really get involved. That group is growing so close and we have been able to grow so close to them as well.  I love them so much!  They are individually unique and amazing in their own way.  

Upon preparing Analìa for her interview we were asking her a few things and one of her answers hit me. We asked her why she would live the law of tithing?  She sat there for a minute in silence (which has been a regular thing), while I´m thinking, ¨Come on you know this... your a smart little cookie... we talked about all the blessings...¨ and then I pushed those thoughts out of my mind trusting that she would say just what her heart told her, and you know what, she did. She said in a quiet, but confident voice, ¨Because I trust in God.¨   I remember silence falling all around me.   One of those moments where the world keeps moving forward but you just stop in awe and gape at what was just said or happened.  She is a bright young woman and Hna Ximena Gutirrez (YW Pte.) calls her the ¨Dulce de Leche¨ among the YW.  It is so true, and it will be such a blessing to see her flourish on this new path she has begun.   But I think we should all strive to just be a little more like Analìa this week and when someone might ask us why we do the things we do or we might question our own self, we should always remember to ¨trust in the Lord.¨  :)    Let us all remember the grand scheme and look beyond the moment. Whatever opposition comes our way, learn to say, ¨I trust in the Lord.¨   Whatever trial, hardship, difficulty, or responsibility, let us continue on the good path we are, ¨because we trust in the Lord.¨

 

Analia, Hermana Tomco and I at the baptism.  

Elder Bayles got to baptize Analia !

The ward came out to support.  So wonderful.

We had a busy week traveling with President to different areas.  While he gave interviews, Hna Tomco and I and the Assistants did training stations with all the missionaries.  We had them practicing contacts (how to talk to people in the street), testing their knowledge on the Book of Mormon, and reviewing how to give a good lesson.  It is so much fun getting to know all the sisters and elders from the mission.  Which reminds me, do we know any Zilm´s?  There is an Elder Zilm here from Mesa.  He is working in Abundancìa which is WAY cool.  Only him and his comp are there amongst 400 members.  The whole community is baptized.  It´s an old story but the whole community was baptized by an elder and the craziest part is they hardly speak a lick of spanish or guarani.  They speak a tongue clicking slash language with a lot of ¨slsh¨ called Nivacle (Nee-vu-clay).  

Con Presidente y Hermana McMullin

Also a HUGE thank you to all those who sent me cards and packages for my birthday and Christmas.  Sorry I haven´t  and probably won´t get to respond to all but please know HOW MUCH it meant to me and how much I love you alllllll!!!!!  UN BESO Y BRASO por todos!!

Con Cariño,

Hermana Owen